Depends on what you want with your photos and what you'll be happy with. When I went, there were a lot of times when the animal (or animals) were some distance away and a standard camera with a long zoom gave me good pictures. The iPhone can produce decent pictures but when you go long zoom, the image degrades quite a bit.
The iPhone is much more convenient. The old question among photographers is, "What's the best camera?" and the answer is, "The one you have with you."
I use a Fujufilm X-H2 with an 18-300mm lens. The X-H2 is an APS-C camera with a crop factor of 1.5, so the 18-300 on that camera is equivalent to a 27-450mm on a 35mm camera. A full frame camera will give the best images, but long lenses for full frame are big and heavy.
But, overall, the one place where I think a standard camera with a long zoom is really worth while is on a safari. There are what I call "zoo safaris" where they've habituated the animals to humans so that they can take you in a vehicle right up to the animals - an iPhone will be fine for that.
Gary, this is one of the most common questions on the AFRICA part of the forum. It’s up to you to decide. On our last AFRICA trip in November we took big cameras and iPhones, the photos were equally good and I got great closeups with my IPhone 14 pro max. So much so, that. I and not taking my big camera next trip to AFRICA in a few months, it’s so liberating not to be lugging it around too. Here is a phone photo
Other considerations. You would not get these photos with an iPhone, which I use a lot for close shots. Also, in bright sunlight it is often difficult to see the iPhone screen to see what you are shooting and what will be in focus.
The iPhone is a great camera, and I took the 13 Pro (as sole camera) on our Blue Danube: Family Riverboat Adventure. But coming as a person that has travelled with a basic DSLR and 18-55mm/70-300mm lenses, the iPhone simply can't do as well due to the sensor size and the zoom capabilities. And it was clear that was the case when we created out photobook afterwards. After much debate, I will still be bringing my 13 Pro on our Tanzania Family Safari Tour, but just today I picked up a Tamron 18-400mm lens for a D7200 body I have.
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Depends on what you want with your photos and what you'll be happy with. When I went, there were a lot of times when the animal (or animals) were some distance away and a standard camera with a long zoom gave me good pictures. The iPhone can produce decent pictures but when you go long zoom, the image degrades quite a bit.
The iPhone is much more convenient. The old question among photographers is, "What's the best camera?" and the answer is, "The one you have with you."
I use a Fujufilm X-H2 with an 18-300mm lens. The X-H2 is an APS-C camera with a crop factor of 1.5, so the 18-300 on that camera is equivalent to a 27-450mm on a 35mm camera. A full frame camera will give the best images, but long lenses for full frame are big and heavy.
But, overall, the one place where I think a standard camera with a long zoom is really worth while is on a safari. There are what I call "zoo safaris" where they've habituated the animals to humans so that they can take you in a vehicle right up to the animals - an iPhone will be fine for that.
Gary, this is one of the most common questions on the AFRICA part of the forum. It’s up to you to decide. On our last AFRICA trip in November we took big cameras and iPhones, the photos were equally good and I got great closeups with my IPhone 14 pro max. So much so, that. I and not taking my big camera next trip to AFRICA in a few months, it’s so liberating not to be lugging it around too. Here is a phone photo
Other considerations. You would not get these photos with an iPhone, which I use a lot for close shots. Also, in bright sunlight it is often difficult to see the iPhone screen to see what you are shooting and what will be in focus.
The iPhone is a great camera, and I took the 13 Pro (as sole camera) on our Blue Danube: Family Riverboat Adventure. But coming as a person that has travelled with a basic DSLR and 18-55mm/70-300mm lenses, the iPhone simply can't do as well due to the sensor size and the zoom capabilities. And it was clear that was the case when we created out photobook afterwards. After much debate, I will still be bringing my 13 Pro on our Tanzania Family Safari Tour, but just today I picked up a Tamron 18-400mm lens for a D7200 body I have.
I agree with all the comments on this thread. This was taken with my iPhone 13 ProMax